CSSI is pleased to announce that Honeywell has released the first in a series of next-generation mobile workforce solutions, the Dolphin 75e, that gives enterprises the flexibility to choose either Windows Embedded 8.1 or Android 4.4 KitKat operating systems. The highly versatile Dolphin 75e is a multimodal mobile device that offers enterprises a low total cost of ownership and significant operational gains with minimal training time for mobile workers, to help business adapt to their current and future requirements. The Dolphin 75e addresses the needs of enterprises with a variety of workflows, including inventory and asset management, shelf stocking, customer engagement, check-in and reservations, and quality and auditing by allowing mobile workers to toggle between multiple applications from a single device.

The Dolphin 75e offers a superior user experience with a field-proven sleek, pocket-sized design and easy-to-use interface that encourages fast and easy adoption with minimal training resources. Equipped with state-of-the-art battery technology and a durable IP67-rated design, the Dolphin 75e powers through a full shift and beyond. The 75e is powered by the leading-edge Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 801, a 2.26 GHz quad-core processor with 2GB RAM, 16 GB FLASH, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and capacitive touch with universal glove usage capabilities. The device offers the freedom to use a variety of input and output modes, and is perfectly suited for operations that need to deploy multiple applications with ease to increase productivity.

Summary

Powerful, Versatile Platform: Industry-leading Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processing power with 2.26GHz quad-core CPU enables advanced performance and power efficiencies with the flexibility to support both Windows and Android O/S configurations.

Dedicated 1D/2D Scanning: Increases productivity and throughput with an integrated and easy-to-use imager that provides aggressive scanning of linear and 2D bar codes; when using a camera is not enough for enterprise.

Field-Proven Durable Design: Lowers total cost of ownership and reduces downtime with an IP67-rated design for protection from dust and water and the ability to withstand multiple 1.2m drops to concrete and 1,000 0.5m tumbles.

Crystal Clear Touch Screen Display: Capacitive touch technology and readability in various lighting conditions combine to provide an offering that is perfect for inside or outside use cases.

The initial buzz ahead of the July 29th release of Windows 10 is overwhelmingly skewed toward the positive. Customer feedback, as well as the input from major PC manufacturers such as Dell, HP, and Toshiba, has been taken seriously throughout the development process.

We at CSSI are curious what your current adoption plan is for Windows 10.

Microsoft has announced that the Windows 10 operating system will be released on July 29th.

Windows 10 comes as a follow up to the largely unsuccessful Windows 8/Windows 8.1 operating system. Windows 9 was skipped as an interesting bit of marketing by Microsoft to further distance Windows 10 from its predecessor. Windows 10 will come as a free upgrade to anyone running a valid license of Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1.

Here are a few of the features of Windows 10:

The Start menu and the Windows desktop have made a return in Windows 10.

Using a feature called Continuum, Windows 10 will automatically adapt its display to the type of device that it’s on.

While Internet Explorer will still be around, Windows 10 will touting a new web browser called Edge.

Microsoft’s voice assistant, Cortana, will be integrated directly into Windows and into the Edge web browser.

You can receive notifications about your operating system from the new Action Center.

Windows 10 will natively support a number of biometric security features, including facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and iris reading, though most PCs won’t have the required hardware for these features.

Purchasing Windows 10 entitles you to free Windows upgrades for the life of your device.

A single license of Windows 10 Home is expected to cost $119, while Windows 10 Pro is expected to cost $199.

For more information on Windows 10 or to purchase licenses, please contact CSSI:

Honeywell Scanning and Mobility officially announced last week the retirement of the Honeywell (formerly Intermec) SR30 and SR31T light industrial handheld scanners. Below you will find the end of service (EOS) dates and the direct replacements for these devices.

SR30

Honeywell has already ceased shipping the SR30 scanners to distribution, and they will not offer spare parts or servicing of the units after May 15, 2018 (i.e., end of service).

SR31T

Honeywell will cease taking orders for the SR31T after November 30 of this year. They will not offer spare parts or servicing of the units after February 28, 2019 (i.e., end of service).

RECOMMENDED REPLACEMENTS

The Honeywell Voyager 1450g

The recommended direct replacement for the SR30/SR31T is the Voyager 1450g. The Voyager 1450g1D delivers omnidirectional reading of linear bar codes, plus the ability to affordably upgrade the device to enable PDF and 2D bar code scanning—either at the time of purchase, or as data capture needs evolve.

Where the SR31T Healthcare Area Imager was being used, the Xenon 1900h is the recommended replacement.

For more information on the Voyager 1450 or the Xenon 1900h scanners, please call CSSI.

Automating your Accounts Payable (AP) processes such as invoice approval, purchase order matching, and requisitions by implementing a workflow solution is no small undertaking. While a well-executed workflow implementation can be accomplished in just a few weeks, implementations more commonly become bogged down for weeks, months, or even years by complications in the process itself. Luckily, with a little foresight and a few common sense tips, many of these curveballs that derail a project can be avoided.

1) Plan. But don’t over-plan.

It is tempting while planning your Accounts Payable automation to try to fix every problem or deficiency with every process within your organization. Even though this seems like a laudable undertaking, it is often a recipe for a failed project. A project with too many initiatives, as well as the requirement that every initiative must succeed in order for the project to succeed, may be doomed for failure or, at the very least, doomed to drastically exceed your planned timeline.

For example, let’s imagine that, as part of your Accounts Payable workflow roll-out, you also decide to clean up the master vendor table in your ERP system. You want to eliminate outdated information, resolve duplicate vendors, and send a letter to all of your vendors asking them to confirm their contact information… and you do not want to roll out the workflows until you have “clean” data to start with. Now you’ve effectively delayed the implementation of the workflow system by weeks, months, or more.

If instead you focused on the workflow system first, getting that into place, you will not be any worse off than you are today using the same “bad” data that you’ve been using for quite some time. Plus, once the workflow system is in place, it should be saving you additional time that you can then devote to cleaning things up.

The moral of this story: pick your battles. It is often better to follow the old 80/20 rule-identify the 20% of the issues that consume 80% of your time and strive to correct or eliminate them. If after the fact you decide to circle back around and tackle the more minor issues, feel free to do so! The implementation will already be in place saving you time and money while you address these other issues.

2) Appoint a single individual to take complete ownership of the project from your side.

Ownership-and the level of accountability that comes along with it-is key to the success of your Accounts Payable automation project. It is very important that one person takes full ownership of what needs to be done from your side of the project. This person will serve as the face of your organization when dealing with the integration vendor, act as the conduit of information to and from your people, ensure that tasks assigned to your organization are being completed on schedule, and provide much needed feedback to the integration vendor. It is this person’s responsibility to raise red flags when something is not working as it is intended.

This person should then strive to talk with the vendor as often as is appropriate for the scale of the project. The more open and direct the relationship between this individual and the integration vendor is, the greater chance the project has of being a smooth success. If there is a regular dialogue happening between the parties, the less likely something will be to slip between the cracks or for the business relationship to break down due to misunderstandings in responsibilities.

While it may be tempting to appoint several individuals to act as ‘area heads’ (such as one person for the invoice approval process, another for requisitions-related topics, another for IT, etc.), each interacting directly with the vendor, this should be avoided. Rarely do several individuals, each acting independently on different portions of a project, ever act in concert with one another. You can appoint several people to each take care of a different area of responsibility, but you should then appoint a single project coordinator and have the area heads coordinate through that person.

3) Make sure that the biggest project resistor from your organization has a key role in the project.

You know who this person is. This is the person who hasn’t had a positive word to say since the project was first proposed. It is the person who sees absolutely no need to do things differently than they have been done for the past 10 years. This is the person who-if left to their own devices-will dig in their heels and grind the project to a halt if they are able to do so.

You need this person to buy in on the project. Instead of keeping them at arm’s length, assign them to a key role in the implementation project. A great job for this person is often beta testing the system. Are they going to love it at first? Probably not. They are probably going to nitpick every single flaw in the software/workflow/implementation/vendors/etc. that they can find, but they may also grow to realize that the new system is not the end of the world, and perhaps it may actually make their life a little easier as it is intended to do.

Is this going to make the project easier? Absolutely not. In fact, it may exponentially increase the amount of aspirin that you’ll have to take during the implementation. Face it, they are not going to instantly become Mr. or Ms. Positive just because they are part of the project. What it will do for the project, however, is to make the resulting solution far more bullet-proof because they have found most of the bugs. And hopefully it has turned a naysayer into a proponent of the project. They will feel like they have some control over the situation, and thus may approach matters as someone who has a vested interest, instead of just feeling helpless. This will also allow the roll-out and adoption phases of the project to go more smoothly and quickly because you have already removed the largest speed bump.

4) Get your IT team involved early in the project.

Imagine, if you will, that you’ve mapped out your dream Accounts Payable automation solution, you’ve contracted a solutions provider that will work with you to implement your solution, and you have the entire solution mapped out on paper: Now it’s time to bring in your IT guys, because your workflow solution needs hardware to run on, right?

Wrong. Ideally, your IT department should have been involved since the planning phase. Having their input early on will help to avoid any ‘gotchas’. These gotchas, or project hang-ups, could include:

a delay in the project while the hardware gets approved,

a vetting process to ensure that the workflow solution is in compliance with the IT department’s process validation requirements,

lack of IT resources availability at the time due to other initiatives,

something as simple as bruised egos because you did not seek their advice prior to purchasing the workflow solution

Essentially, it is better to have your IT department involved (if only peripherally) in the purchasing and planning phases of your Accounts Payable automation project, not the implementation phase, in order to avoid unforeseen roadblocks down the road.

5) Seek (and take!) advice from your integration provider.

You’re probably paying your chosen integration provider more than a few dollars to implement your Accounts Payable workflows for you. Why not maximize the value that you’re getting for the dollars your spending? This probably isn’t their first rodeo, so they are going to have invaluable experience and advice as to how to improve your processes to make them more efficient. Not only have they seen how other organizations have handled the same issues that you face, but it is sometimes just a good idea to get an outsider’s perspective. They may easily see the inefficiencies that you are too close to see.

As one last bit of advice, it is a good idea to seek out an implementation vendor who not only supports but also usesthe ERP that you use. Who better to quickly troubleshoot why something isn’t working for you than someone who is intimately familiar with your ERP and has it installed and handy for testing?

Want more implementation advice? Call me at (570) 768-4482 or email me to discuss your automation needs and how you can eliminate your pain points.